25 Sep 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Lolita Tabron who was named the 2019 recipient of the Jack A. Culbertson Award, presented by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), a leading professional organization of higher education institutions focused on advancing the preparation of educational leaders. Dr. Tabron is an assistant professor in the Morgridge College of Education’s Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program.

The Culbertson Award is given to a professor in the first six years of his or her career. As the UCEA noted in a press release announcing the award, Tabron is “a scholar, teacher and mentor whose early career contributions are already having a multiplier effect by impacting the lives of educational leadership scholars. Her passion and actions for social justice and equity contribute greatly to her ability to ignite confidence and learning from her students.”

The award will be presented at the UCEA Annual Conference Luncheon in New Orleans on Thursday, Nov. 21.

The Higher Education (HED) Department at the Morgridge College of Education (MCE) engages in teaching, research, and service that draws from and contributes to the resources of Denver, Colorado, and national communities. The University of Denver Center for Community Engagement & Service Learning (CCESL) recently recognized these efforts by awarding HED the Community Engaged Department of the Year award. This award honors an academic department that has developed a concentration of faculty members who engage in high quality community-based partnerships; carry out rigorous public good scholarship; and teach innovative service-learning courses that improve students’ academic knowledge.

HED’s bond with the community is exemplified by its connections with the many organizations throughout Denver that collaborate with them. One such collaboration, with the Denver Scholarship Foundation, places graduate students in Denver high schools to support the work of DSF’s future centers – places designed to support underrepresented students’ postsecondary opportunities. Also, each of the tenure-line faculty members in HED have pursued community-based research projects. For example, Dr. Cecilia Orphan received a grant from the CCESSL Public Good Fund for her research on higher education and the public good in collaboration with the Campus Compact of the Mountain West, an inter-institutional organization that focuses on civic engagement in higher education.

HED students actively engage with these community partners during their time at MCE. In addition to service-learning opportunities across the HED curriculum, students engage in independent and small group “praxis projects” wherein they design and deliver evaluation, assessment, and research-based recommendations in collaboration with student affairs, academic affairs, and business affairs offices at college and university campuses across the Denver metropolitan area. Through these connections HED students experience hands-on the ways in which they can challenge and inform change in the real world.

The Higher Education Department and our students are proud to have formed such strong bonds with these communities and to have the opportunity to work alongside them supporting the public good.

Morgridge’s very own Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS) Principal Preparation Program has been awarded the 2014 UCEA Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation Program Award. This award as presented by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) recognizes ELPS for having well involved district partnerships, demanding recruitment and selection processes, faculty capacity, and program effectiveness, among many other factors.

ELPS shares this prestigious award with North Carolina State University’s Northeast Leadership Academy. The award along with a $7,000 cash prize will be presented to the ELPS Principal Preparation Program at the UCEA Awards Luncheon, Thursday, November 20th, 2014, at the 28th annual UCEA Convention in Washington, DC.